Placing the last book on the shelf, Hermione Granger wiped the non - existent sweat of her brow, and looked around. Ah, last one, she thought. Not trusting magic with her many, many precious books, Hermione managed to hand move all of her books, by herself, into her new, larger bookstore, and then placed them, by subject, in alphabetical order. After living in Athens for the past almost five years, Hermione had to admit she was glad to be home. Moving away straight after the war was a rash decision but she ended up falling in love with Greece and buying a small bookshop in Athens, loving the history rich city, and the abundance of knowledge residing in the plentiful books and scrolls. Moving back to England wasn't exactly her number one choice, but she felt she should. Hermione missed Harry, Ginny, and Ron like crazy, she didn't want to miss out on anymore of their sons upbringing, and when Ginny had called her and told her she was again pregnant, Hermione reluctantly sold her small bookstore in the heart of Greece, purchased a much larger store in Diagon Ally, not far from her favourite twins joke shop, and a house in Godrics Hollow, to be close to The Potters. Feeling that her books were more important than anything else, she chose to set up her shop first, before her house, Harry was going to help with that anyway. Muttering security spells and putting up wards to lock the shop, Hermione stepped onto the familiar cobbled stones of Diagon Alley, and apparated to The Burrow, where she wasn't surprised to see a large gathering of people outside, waiting to see her. Before she could even get her bearings, she felt something small almost knock the wind out of her and hug her leg, holding on for dear life. Looking down to see a familiar shock of messy black hair, she bent to lift the tiny human up.
"James Sirius Potter, calm down and let Aunt Hermione breathe for Godrics sake!" Ginny Potter called to her son.
"Its okay", Hermione replied, giving James a kiss on the cheek, "I've missed my little dragon".
At hearing being called a dragon, James roared at Hermione, the very reason he had earned the nickname from her. "Aunt Hermione I missed you!" James exclaimed happily, waving his arms in an excited manner, "you look all pretty" he said, in a way only a child can, making Hermione smile sappily.
Putting James down so she could give Ginny a hug, she embraced her friend, feeling the slight protrusion of her stomach and grinning at her. Pregnancy definitely suited Ginny well. Looking up at the group as they walked closer , Hermione noticed a familiar head of platinum blonde hair mixed in with the black and ginger. She stumbled, took a deap breath and stopped abruptly, grabbing Ginny's arm, while James ran forwards to his father.
"Ginerva Molly Weasley, What the bloody hell is Draco Malfoy doing here?" Hermione hissed.
"I wanted to tell you earlier but Draco said he wanted to prove it to you before you had time to build it up in your head." Ginny answered, "He's gotten close to Harry and Ron, they're almost inseparable, he's James's godfather."
"But I - I don't understand how this happened!"
"It was Ron he first became friends with actually. They were both over in Romania working with Charlie, and he apologised. It took a lot of convincing, but Harry and him ended up getting on really well too, and so now he's part of the family. He was a big help with James. It took him a couple of years but now he's like family." Ginny smiled, "it's a long story, but he's different now, trust me, would Harry let this man into our lives and with our son if he didn't trust him completely?"
Hermione looked over darkly at the man standing by Harry, laughing. He had just picked up James and was currently tickling him. "I don't know how you expected me to react, but fine, we'll see how this goes." Hermione grimaced as they started walking towards the burrow again. Ginny put a hand on her shoulder, "Do you honestly think Harry of all people would consider him a best friend if he really hadn't changed? It's been three and a half years and I've not once seen a glimpse of the old Draco Malfoy, and we're around him a lot. Trust me, he's changed, he's nothing like he used to be at all. Just give it a chance."
Nearing the outdoor set-up, Hermione was immediately seized into a hug by Mrs Weasley. "Oh Hermione dear, we've missed you!" Hermione hugged back equally as fierce. She had missed her surrogate mother. As soon as the Weasley mother let go, she was pulled straight back into a hug, this time with a person who brought tears to her eyes. "Harry!" the petite witch squealed.
"Hermione!" Harry Potter responded gruffly, "you don't know how much I've missed you!" Hermione was closer to Harry than anybody else. They had a special relationship. He was the brother she never had, her best friend and so much more. Ron quickly joined the hug with a shout of, "'Mione!"
After the boys had finally let everyone else have a chance to say hello to Hermione, she found James running over to her, pulling a very worried looking Draco Malfoy by the hand. She noticed that his trademark smirk was strangely absent from his pointed face. "Aunt Hermione," James began proudly, "this is Uncle Draco, he's very nice and plays dragons with me" The four year old grinned and pushed Draco forward. Hermione bent down to James's level and whispered in his ear. " Guess what?" she whispered, " I already know him"
James gasped dramatically. "You already know him?" he frowned, " but I was going to introduce you."
"Okay buddy, how abouts we pretend I don't know him and you can still do that, aye?" Hermione grinned at the small boy, and then looked up at Draco. " I'm sure we could use a starting again," She said to him, grinning slightly, though she was sure it came out more like a grimace. "I'd like that," he said as she stood up. Hermione was shocked at the genuine smile he was smiling.
Draco stuck his hand out in front of him. " Draco Malfoy," he said, still smiling
Hermione took his hand and shook it, "Hermione Granger." She looked down at James by Draco's side, he was pulling on Draco's shirt. "Uncle Draco," He whispered loudly, "Aunt Hermione likes hugs!"
Draco and Hermione looked at each other awkwardly, and Draco muttered " humor me" and put his arms around her in a hug. She stiffened in his arms at first, but then hugged back. He was trying after all. She was intrigued by this new Malfoy - wait no she'd better call him Draco - he was actually smiling, and hadn't sneered once at anything. Plus James seemed to love him so something must have changed. She looked over at him just as he looked up at her and smiled, something that made his face actually look quite nice. Wait what was she doing, this was Draco Malfoy she was talking about. Yeah but he's changed, said a voice in the back of her head. This was crazy, Hermione couldn't even begin to wrap her head around it. She was definitely pulling an unlucky Ron and Harry aside after this.
A/N I promise the new ccahpters will be longer, just wanted to get this one started. Hope you like it! :) Please r&r, no flames.